Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire No Wonder The Germans Lost The War.....

The Krauts lost WWII because they obviously put all their Officers on the front lines of battle! If anybody else here has been in the gun business for any length of time, they'll probably relate to this. I've been in the retail gun business for over 20 years now at two different shops. Almost without fail, every Luger, P-38, old Walther PP or PPK, or K98 that comes through the doors was "taken off a dead German General/Officer." I've heard it so many times that I usually beat them to the punch. They'll come in and hand us a P-38 or Luger to be cleaned, appraised, whatever, and I'll say "Let me guess. Your relative took this off a dead German Officer." Often they'll look at me and with a stunned look, say "How did you know??" Some of my co-workers and I will give each other a knowing glance when one comes out of a case. When the inevitable statement is made, it's all we can do to hold back the tears of laughter. Now don't get me wrong, I do know that SOME of these guns are indeed war trophies, but not ALL OF THEM! And it is ALWAYS an "Officer or General", never just a common foot soldier. Several years ago, a chap came in with a very nice older PPK .32 that his grandfather "took off a dead German General." When I informed him that that was interesting because it was indeed a COMMERCIAL model made in 1961 (according to the serial #), he just refused to believe his Gramps had told him a fib. Just today, I had an even better one, but this time with a Colt. Young guy brought in three handguns that he inherited. He said he was told the Colt was used in the South Pacific in WWII. It was a '70 series G-O-L-D C-U-P! He too was dejected when we told him the hard truth....

Play along, it's good for them?

My Uncle took their cameras! I've seen the pictures. One of them was two smiling German guys painting rings on a quad anti aircraft gun barrel. I sure hope that each ring didn't signify an allied plane they shot down. Germans sure loved their side arms and daggers. There's so many still around.

I know when Hitler realized they lost the war. I watched a special on Liberty Ships. When Hitler realized that each shipyard could build one a month, he said "we lost the war." We could build them faster then they could sink them.

The rings on the gun barrels of tanks and FLAK guns were for each tank for the tank guns and aircraft for the FLAK guns.

I don't see how any FLAK gun crew would have any idea if they had hit a bomber at high altitude with the sky full of flak.

My cousin took a piece in his belly turret that cut his air hose. The crew pulled him out just in time after he had passed out and didn't answer his radio check.

Battlefield FLAK guns.88mm,37mm and 20mm guns. Theytook a pretty fearsome toll. Check out the battlefield FLAK gun called the Whirewind.

Gun designations were kinda confusing at times. FLAK,PAK,KWK.
FLAK- Fleigerabwehrkanonone
PAK-Panzerabwherkanone
KWK-Kamphwagenkanone.
If that ain't confusing enuff, the 88mm main gun on the Tiger II was KWK43/1 L71 while the SAME gun on a Jagdpanther was a PAK 43/1 L71.

An interesting topic, as I am knee deep in one of these controversies. I have an 1851 Navy Model Colt that came down to me through the family. It's a family heirloom, and I will never part with it, but it does come wiith an interesting story.

Supposedly the story goes that the man I am named after the man who carried this gun as his sidearm during the Civil War. He was from a Pennsylvania unit just across the border from Ohio down near Youngstown, and was supposedly killed toward's war's end by a sniper.

Here's where it gets interesting:

Assuming he was killed in action, and we know not where, what's the chances of his sidearm getting back to the family?

An appraisal of the gun's value yielded some possibly contradictory information. We were told during the appraisal, that the military-issued Colts would have had the regiment number stamped in the grips, and if the weapon had seen action, the chances of the serial numbers on the frame and cylinder matching were very rare, as the guys carried spare loaded cylinders to switch out during combat. The gun has no stampings on the grips, and all the serial numbers match. We also learned that somewhere along the line, someone had replaced the hinge screw on the ramrod with a pounded in pin. Another oddity of this gun is that it's stamped on the side of the trigger guard, 36 cal. but it's obviously a .32.

Something's fishy in Denmark, but it doesn't matter, as this will stay in our family for the foreseeable future. I should get it lettered by Colt to see if we can learn more about it's true origins.

Not if they're trying to sell it. Then they want more money for it.
We had a guy come in the other day with a Colt Government .380 that he said a relative carried in Vietnam in an ankle holster...

my mom has my grandpa's 32 he picked up in WWII, not sure where it was or anything about it. it looks like an old colt hammerless, no proofs on it or anything that I can remember seeing

SCGunNut, you are lucky they arrive w/ the gun in a case. Around here we regularly have people walk in w/ a gun in their hand despite signs on all entrances. We discuss the downside of this w/ them as part of our community education effort. Many people think that because a gun is old and filthy it must be a valuable antique.

mike r

Yeah, we've had people come in holding an AK with a mag inserted, wanting to use our range. They seem confused at the reception that they receive.

I have an old single shot 410 that was passed down to me from my grandpa.

The only I stories I know to be true are my grandpa shot squirrels, rabbits, coons and skunks with it on the farm. My grandma also used it to shoot pigeons.

I know this to be true, because I witnessed some of it and they personally told me about it.

Is it worth any money?

I've also heard that "took it off a dead German" story in regards to WWII German handguns. Too bad so many of them came here without capture papers, or the papers got lost over the years. Capture papers add a lot of credibility to the story. I wish I had capture papers on the German Luger my late uncle removed from the Mittlewerks at Nordhausen, Germany in May 1945. That was the main production facility for the V-2 rocket which uncle Sam cleaned out almost before the ink was dry on Germany's surrender papers. But as it is I have no proof of where or when that gun was acquired which is too bad because it would be nice to have proof linking it to Nordhausen. Just from a historical perspective it would be interesting and I don't care if it made the gun more valuable. It's not for sale and plans are to keep it in the family as an heirloom so it will get handed down. Back in '45 when Germany surrendered the attitude became; "Hey, the war's over! who needs capture papers?"

Hitler was a charismatic idiot, their downfall was listening to him.

I captured my Luger out of the used pistol case at the shop for $395! The little old lady that brought in the full functional MP 28 last Wednesday afternoon did also have a byf 42 Luger and a loaded Astra 600! No special stories. They simply belonged to her late hubby.

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Because USAAF flew relatively low for daylight precision strikes..

Sound familiar????

I don't buy that completely. Not that low.
Seems the whole idea was to get above 20,000 feet and still hit something.
My cousin was high enough to pass out without his air supply.

And the old films show flak so thick it looks like you could almost walk on it.
I think all flak gun crews in the area must have shared their kills.